TUNIS: Tunisian autho­ri­ties expelled hundreds of sub-Saharan asylum-seekers, migrants and refugees from encampments in the capital Tunis, a non-governmental organisation said.

Makeshift settlements in Tunis, including near the International Organi­sa­­tion for Migration (IOM), were destroyed as the migrants were “deported to the Algerian border”, said the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES).

“At least 300 migrants, including refugees and asylum-seekers, as well as women and children, were forcibly evacuated overnight,” said FTDES spokesman Romdhane Ben Amor.

Up to 700 sub-Saharan migrants had set up makeshift encampments in an area north of the Gulf of Tunis, in the past few months, the rights group said.

Many had fled from other cities after a surge of anti-migrant violence following a speech by President Kais Saied in February last year in which he said “hordes of illegal migrants” posed a demographic threat to the country. Humanitarian sou­rces confirmed Friday’s expulsions, which the police said had started at around 3am. Some migrants had left the encampments before the authorities began clearing the area, said Ben Amor.

Others had “managed to escape before arriving in the Beja region, in western Tunisia”, near the Algerian border.

“Among them there are vulnerable people protected by international conventions, and people in need of medical assistance who have already been living in inhumane conditions for months,” he added.

Tunisia has become a launch pad for thousands of sub-Saharan migrants hoping to reach Europe.

The latest expulsions came days after far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Tunis — her fourth in less than a year — to sign deals aiming to curb migration.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2024